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The Southern California Writers Association very kindly invited me to speak at their St Patrick’s Day luncheon on the 15th of March, in Laguna Woods. I decided to speak about the challenges I’ve [...]

Have you heard of Women’s Christmas? It’s an ancient Irish tradition called – in irish – Nollaig na mBan (pronounced Null-ug na Mon. Say it three times and you’ll be grand). Back in [...]

Kind of like a traveler’s check? Where the bearer signs on receipt? And I wonder, did the bank president and the chief cashier sign every note? Or were they printed on? This note looks a [...]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits financial institutions from discriminating based on sex, age and marital status, among other things. The act [...]

So many platforms for serial publishing! Most of which seem to be devoted pretty much to romance and fantasy. Neither of which I write. *Business idea! A publishing platform dedicated to noir, [...]

I’ve been listening to the back catalogue of Tim Harford‘s excellent podcast, Cautionary Tales. Episode 7, Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano is a great story about creativity and [...]

From 2016, which seems like another world now, but a lot of this rings true for someone considering self publishing. If you self-publish your book, you are not going to be writing for a living. [...]

Yes, that is a noose, and that is the River Thames. And yes, the gallows’ crossbeam is indeed aimed at the financial centre, Canary Wharf. The gallows is part of the Prospect of Whitby, one [...]

At a quarter to ten on the morning of May 19, 1811, bells began to sound throughout the neighbourhood of New York around Chatham Street and the City Hall. It being a Sunday, not many people paid [...]

I’m reading a great book right now called Publishing 101, by Jane Friedman. She is a columnist with Publishers Weekly and writes a very useful blog at JaneFriedman.com. She’s been in [...]